Drew Krab: The Will and Perseverance of a Person Who Cares

By: Celie

Drew Krab’s family has been in the Keith County area for about 120 years. After college when deciding where to live, close by family and a small, safe community were attractive to him. Krab’s attachment to the Ogallala community has led him to work on projects such as fixing up Humphrey’s Pond, leading the effort to pass a School Bond, a Downtown Revitalization project to bring our downtown area back to life, and the Midplains Expansion project. When asked what motivates him to be so active in our community, he replies that he likes having a positive contribution and has a passion for community involvement.

Krab’s latest project is the Midplains Community College Expansion in Ogallala. He’s helping to organize the fundraising efforts to get a campus with classrooms in Ogallala. “My passion when I work on community projects is to really benefit the most amount of people possible, and that project (Midplains) has the potential to really change a lot of people’s lives.”

Krab was one of the people who stepped up to head the last school bond campaign. He believes that for whatever reason, the bond not being passed was the next step for the schools. Krab says that once you are emotionally tied up in something, you are going to get frustrated. “But after a couple of days of being unhappy, I realized it shouldn’t affect the way I feel about community service.”

Krab believes that community activism is more effective than a lot of other solutions the government can provide. “I believe communities exist so that when we have common problems we can come together to take care of those.” Krab says that four areas that are crucial to a community’s development are housing, health care, economic development, and education. “The solutions reside in the will and perseverance of people that care.” Organizations Krab has worked with to accomplish these projects include the Chamber of Commerce, School Board, school committees and staff, Keith County Area Development, and the downtown business community.

“I’d just like to think that decades after I’m gone that the things that were most important to me for the community are continuing to work for the community, being a benefit for the community, and maybe even inspires other generations to say ‘You know, let’s take this community college or our downtown to the next level.’ ” Krab continues to work on the Midplains project and Downtown Revitalization. “I think that Ogallala and the Keith County area have a lot of untapped potential.” When asked what other things he’d like to get involved with in the community, he says he’d like to try to bring new businesses into the area and become involved in business expansion projects.